As is known to those in the semiconductor art, the reduction in size of semiconductor devices has been indispensably necessary in order to cause an increase in device performance and a decrease in power consumption. For instance, in keeping with the pace of modern technology, integrated circuits (ICs), including, for example, field-effect transistors (FETs), are now formed with gate lengths less than 50 nm. However, as gate lengths are formed below 50 nm, FET scaling becomes limited by the configuration of these devices, including the methods by which they are fabricated. For example, as VLSI technology approaches the limits in scaling, there currently exist several device structures under consideration, namely, a bulk MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor FET), a dual-gate MOSFET, and a SOI (silicon-on-insulator) MOSFET. During the fabrication of advanced semiconductor devices, silicon layers are etched while critical dimensions of the feature formed therein are maintained. Often times, this requires the etching of a shallow doped silicon region, followed by the etching of an un-doped silicon region, each of which having an optimal process chemistry to facilitate preservation of the feature critical dimension.